Pendant of noble killed by Robert Bruce found in field

.

MARTYN McLAUGHLIN

A HISTORIC pendant belonging to one of Scotland’s most famous noblemen has been discovered by a metal detector enthusiast in what has been described as “the find of a lifetime.”

The seven century-old treasure is believed to have belonged to Sir John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, who was stabbed to death by his rival to the Scottish throne, Robert the Bruce, in 1306.

Picture: Mary Evans Picture Library

The hobbyist who uncovered the harness pendant from a muddy Kinross-shire field near Loch Leven Castle has told that he assumed the item was a worthless prefect’s badge dating from the 1960s, given it was in such good condition.

However, it is thought the rare medieval artefact fell from the bridle of Sir John’s horse, with the history books showing the knight defeated invading English armies at the castle five years before his bloody death.

The red and gold ornament is now in the possession of Treasure Trove Scotland, the body which ensures that significant objects from the nation’s past are preserved in museums for the wider public benefit.

Sir John, also known as the Red Comyn, was the son of one of the many contenders to the Scottish throne following the death of Alexander III and his granddaughter, the Maid of Norway.

John Eldridge. Picture: the newsagency.com

Murder

He was infamously murdered before the altar of a Dumfries church by Robert the Bruce, who would be crowned King of Scotland just six weeks later.

The pendant was found by John Eldridge from North Berwick who said that he had never made such a discovery in three decades of scouring fields with his metal detector. The 67-year-old made the find during an organised metal detecting outing near the castle on 3 February.

Later analysis showed that the crest on the pendant matches that of the Comyn coat of arms with both depicting three sheaves of wheat.

Recalling the moment he stumbled across the shield-shaped decoration, Mr Eldridge said the group he was with became excited after he showed them what he had plucked from the soil.

Excellent condition

He said: “It’s the find of a lifetime. I’ve been searching for historic gems for more than 30 years and found nothing like this. It was just two or three inches down in the soil.

“It’s been in the ground for 700 years but it was in such good condition that when I picked it up I thought it might be a prefect’s badge or something from the 1950s or 60s.

“I put it in my pocket and asked some of the others. The first person I showed it to became very excited and said, ‘This is a horse pendant’.”

He added: “I did some research and found the crest of the Comyn family. It has three sheaves of wheat in silver, but the pennant is in gold. There was a strict code in the medieval period. The only people who were allowed to wear gold at that time were people of high status - earls and above.

“It seems to me this belonged to John Comyn. If so then it’s an important part of Scottish history.”

The pendant features a pin with the ring at the top, although the ring is broken, suggesting it fallen off the decorated harness worn around the bridle or chest of Sir John’s steed.

‘Nighthawks’

The exact location of the discovery is being kept secret to prevent “nighthawks” - described by Mr Eldridge described as “common thieves” from digging up the land without permission and stealing other valuable artefacts which may be in the area.

The pendant is currently being examined by experts, and once verified, it is expected it will be allocated to a museum.

A spokeswoman for Treasure Trove Scotland said: “There is little doubt that harness pendants were prominent symbols of status during the medieval period, sending out a clear message about the prestige of the rider, a knight, as well as their family connections or allegiances.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.